The new horns begin to grow as soon as the old ones have dropped off. During the spring and summer they are covered with a soft velvety membrane, and they are then described as being "in the velvet." The blood circulates freely through this membrane, and it is highly sensitive, so that a blow upon the horns at this season produces great pain. By the time the "rutting" season commences (in October), the velvet has peeled off, and the horns are then in order for battle--and they need be, for the battles of the bucks during this period are terrible indeed.--Frequently their horns get "locked" in such conflicts, and, being unable to separate them, the combatants remain in this situation until both perish by hunger, or fall a prey to their natural enemy--the wolf. Many pairs of horns have been found in the forest thus locked together, and there is not a museum in America without this singular souvenir of mutual destruction! The hair of the American deer is thickly set and smooth on the surface. In winter it grows longer and is of a greyish hue; the deer is then, according to hunter phraseology, "in the grey." In the summer a new coat is obtained, which is reddish, or calf-coloured. The deer is then "in the red." Towards the end of August, or in autumn, the whole coat has a blue tinge. This is called "in the blue." At all times the animal is of a whitish appearance on the throat and belly and insides of the legs. The skin is toughest when "in the red," thickest "in the blue," and thinnest "in the grey." In the blue it makes the best buckskin, and is, therefore, most valuable when obtained in autumn. The fawns of this species are beautiful little creatures; they are fawn-coloured, and showered all over with white spots which disappear towards the end of their first summer, when they gradually get into the winter grey. The American deer is a valuable animal. Much of the buckskin of commerce is the product of its hides, and the horns are put to many uses. Its flesh, besides supplying the tables of the wealthy, has been for centuries almost the whole sustenance of whole nations of Indians. Its skins have furnished them with tents, beds, and clothing; its intestines with bowstrings, ball "raquets," and snow-shoes; and in the chase of this creature they have found almost their sole occupation as well as amusement. With so many enemies, it is a matter of wonder that this species has not long been extirpated; not only has man been its constant and persevering destroyer, but it has a host of enemies besides, in the cougar, the lynxes, the wolverine, and the wolves.